Maine-iac

By the end of the season they were playing Josh the way they played Tyrod. Blitz him to keep him in the pocket and since he isn't throwing hot or beating you with short throws you beat the hell out of him and sooner or later cause turnovers.

This just isn't true. The go big all the time and hit it more often than other teams but still miss frequently. Meanwhile there are tons of easier shorter throws Josh doesn't take and I'm guessing half a million runs called that he audibles out of. Sometimes you have to commit to the grind so teams can't commit to meeting in the backfield at your QB on every play. The Bengals didn't blitz the secondary as much as they did because they thought we were running or throwing screens. They did that because they know we throw all the damn time and Josh loves to hold the ball.

Every team that has played well this weekend has given it to a rb 15 to 20 times not 5 or 6 times.

Seems like every DC in the league is willing to send a DB after the QB except for us.

The did get Urlacher and the Bears in the SB. Unfortunately we aren't facing any Rex Grpssmans in the playoffs these days.

At least the Colts had Freeney.

Give me Miller, the Tre White we drafted, and Hyde back and I'd love to see this game run back. The teams that were on the field today I'd give it to the Bengals 9 out of 10 times.

The Bengals DB's had half a dozen QB hits. Our DB's had none because we never send them. Other teams know who's coming and how to block them.

We have become the Colts from the Manning era and even they had Freeney.

Situationally well. Spags is a great blitzer. He's the guy who stopped the undefeated Pats in the SB.

So many people implying we can't run the ball. We can and did run the ball in any or every game we TRIED to run. You can't run the ball 3 or 4 times and call that a failed running game. It's not the OL or the RB's. I'm not calling the OL or RB's all stars but we don't have rushing numbers because we don't run the ball. We are predictable and Allen gets hit a lot because we pass a lot and everyone knows where to find him. The only reason we score as much as we do is because teams can't stop him altogether but we only do two things, throw deep or throw for 8 to 10. In any given half you could count the runs or short throws on one hand.

Schwartz was good but even he had a CB driven defense. When we had injuries at CB Schwartz had problems. He would have had problems keeping this defense together this year. We needed White to be White and Poyer to be Poyer and some others to step up.

Tell that to Belichick. You need good coaches on both sides of the ball. It doesn't matter with OC or DC for coach.

Just gross. I vomited in my mouth a little.

Our OL and RB's showed the ability every time they were given the chance to run and run well. They hurried Allen because they were blitzing DB's offf the edge. Something we seldom do, much like running the ball. I'm not saying Dawkins and Brown were great but they weren't the overall problem.

With all the injuries on defense who was going to be the difference maker? Poyer has been playing wounded for weeks. We needed a playmaker and we have none. That said Frazier needs to mix it up better. Someone needs to get to the QB. Especially when you are playing 2, 3rd, and 4th string players throughout your secondary.

Offenses problems were not lack of resources. They're predictable and easily blitzed.

Even more than having a pass rush the entire system we run is predicated off having good coverage. We haven't had good coverage most of the year and everything falls apart after that. Pass rush will never get there if there's always someone open and we have never been great at stopping the run. We hope for splash plays to stop drives. Against the Pats or Miami's 3rd string QB we had a chance but most teams carved us up pretty easily.

I can't say it's the OL. We didn't have answers for the blitzing DB's and we don't run the ball so they know what's coming basically every play. Brown and Dawkins both had some bad plays but neither (in the big picture) were the reason we couldn't score. We are just too predictable and teams only have to commit to coverage and pass rush not because we can't run but because we just don't.

Frazier is to defense what Dorsey seems to be to offense. If our offense isn't hitting big passes Dorsey doesn't have many answers and if our defense can't cover even when the are playing coverage Frazier isn't going to have an answer. Halftime most coaches would come out and run or hit some short passes and on defense most teams would blitz or bring a safety down and take some chances stopping short throws and runs since we aren't stopping the deep throws anyways but not our coaches. Same thing all game long.

They had one. Jones was inactive for this game.

Instead of building a championship team we built a team that beats up on bad teams. Instead of coming into the playoffs being a team that can run or pass and stop the run or stop the pass we throw all the damn time and if the big plays don't happen we don't score. Defense can't cover. I mean our pass rush is not the best but there are almost no cover sacks because the opposing QB's always have somewhere to throw the ball.

They ran the ball. Smart really. We sat Jones (our space eater) and we played pass rushers and then it snowed. They took their back ups and just leaned on us and we couldn't stop them. Once the run was established we were left guessing and we didn't play run or pass well after that.

Game adjustments. When your coverage clearly isn't getting there you need to mix in some cb blitzes. You have to get there. Even not stopping the run you can mitigate a little bit if you shut down the pass but you can't keep rushing 4 and not getting there if you coverage is consistently getting beat.

I'm sorry but 10 rushes with 2 minutes left in the 4th means we were never trying to run the ball. All year long we made little effort to run the ball. Teams don't have to game plan for it because even if we could run the ball (which we could) we won't. Since we never run they simply flip between disguised blitzes and then coverage and their blitzes get there and there coverage leaves Josh with no where to throw. We try to play everything on every play and we can't cover well enough or get to the passer. It's maddening.